1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate generally to information processing systems. More specifically, embodiments of the invention provide a system, method and computer-usable medium for recovering data from a memory storage device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Consumers, small business owners, and employees of large corporations typically view their computing devices as commodities that are more easily and more cheaply replaced than repaired. However, this is not the case with their data, which they view as valuable and worth protecting. Numerous solutions for backing up and archiving data exist, many of which are easy to use or even automated. Nonetheless, many individuals and companies fail to adequately protect their data, despite the value it represents. As a result, the need to recover data from a crashed system is not uncommon.
However, system recovery efforts often begin with reinstalling the OS, which generally overwrites all data on the hard disk. As a result, reinstalling the OS is not a viable data recovery option unless the user's data has been stored on a separate storage partition. Even so, reinstalling the OS can still be time consuming, error-prone, and tedious. Alternatively, a variety of tools exist for repairing a crashed disk image without reinstalling the OS, but there is no guarantee that the user's data will not be lost or corrupted in the course of using these tools.
As a result, users would typically prefer to get a copy of their data from the crashed system before such repairs are attempted. One option is to remove the affected disk drive and install it on a different machine. Once installed, the data can then be transferred to another storage device. However, this approach assumes that another machine is available and the user has the knowledge and skill to remove and reinstall a disk drive. If not, then the user would typically be required to pay a third party. In either case, the process can be as time consuming, error-prone, and tedious as reinstalling the OS. In view of the foregoing, there is a need for recovering a copy of user data from a memory storage device before system recovery or repairs are attempted.